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Wednesday, February 1, 2012

O How Amiable, R Vaughan Williams

God of Creation, Maker of all things, we gather in this place to pray.

We do invite you, come now among us, come and build your church today.

Refrain: Come build a church with soul and spirit, come build a church of flesh and bone,

We need no tower rising skyward, no house of wood, or glass, or stone.

Come build a church with human frailty, come build a church of flesh and blood,

Jesus shall be its sure foundation. It shall be built by the hand of God.

Let us see the tongues of fire, let us hear the great world roar;

Let us know the awe and wonder that we've only glimpsed before.

Let us feel the strength of passion which can make us laugh and weep,

Let us know this great awakening. For so long we've been asleep.

Let us know the love unceasing which alone can loose the bounds.

Reaching out across the chasms, bringing walls of hatred down.

Let us taste the sweet communion, where the circle never ends.

Hold us in the sweet connection turning strangers into friends.

Refrain:Come build a church…..

Guide our feet in peaceful pathways. Teach us peace of heart and mind;

Peace with God and all God's children; till we leave our wars behind.

Surely joy will come and find us like a breeze that cools the night;

Like the rain upon the desert; like a candle's gentle light.

Refrain:Come build a church…..

OFFERTORY: “O How Amiable Are Thy Dwellings”….Ralph Vaughan Williams

O how amiable are thy dwellings; thou Lord of hosts! My soul hath a desire and longing to enter in to the courts of the Lord: My heart and my flesh rejoice in the living God. Yea, the sparrow hath found her an and the swallow a nest where she may lay her young: Even thy altars O Lord of hosts, my king and my God. Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: They will be always praising thee. The glorious majesty of the Lord our God be upon us: prosper thou the work of our hands upon us. o prosper thou our handy work, o prosper thou our handy work.

O God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come, our shelter from the stormy blast, and our eternal home.